Here we go! Chapter one of Hunted! I'm so glad you guys are still with me, and I hope I do this justice.

I have a plan for the Abeke/Shane thing, and I'm hoping beyond hope that it'll work out... we'll see lol.

I have most of Blood Ties written, and need to type it up, but I have plenty of time for that because this is going to be a total of thirteen chapters, meaning I have about three months before I run out of time.

-owl

Abeke sighed. "I'm almost ready, Uraza," she assured. If she stayed any longer the pair of them were going to be late. Abeke had gotten up early, before the sun had risen, and went out to the cliff at the east end of the island to watch the sun rise. As she had passed through the common room at the top of the tower, she could hear one of the boys snoring in their room.

It was nice to get outside for a little while. Abeke had been cooped up inside more than she would like to admit since she had left her home. The ships were the worst, the rocking was terrible, and though it was marginally better below deck, she then had the problem of being stuck in the tiny cabins. And, while yes, the journey to find Arax had been entirely outdoors, now they were all back at Greenhaven and once again stuck in the castle.

By now the sun had made it nearly halfway to directly overhead, and the bell that signaled training was sure to ring any time. Uraza kept pacing towards the path they had taken to the cliff in the first place.

With another sigh Abeke left the cliff side and followed the large cat towards the castle. As they entered into the courtyard, Uraza suddenly shot off, in the complete opposite direction of where they should be going for training.

Uraza led Abeke through hallways and large, empty rooms, they went up stairs and back down. It was as Uraza was about to snatch a bird from the air that the bell rang three times, saying it was time for training.

Not that Uraza listened to the bell. Instead, she followed a hall towards the main courtyard once again. When they were bathed in the bright sunshine, Abeke saw Uraza's focus shift. The leopard was singularly focused on another flying spirit animal. This one seemed to be a bat of some sort, possibly a sugar glider.

They followed each other through the halls; the bat, the cat, and the girl, twisting and turning until Abeke had no earthly clue where in the castle they were. At one point they had gone trampling through the dining hall, earning them looks of outrage. Finally, in another hall, the bat launched itself up into the rafters, to safety.

They were at the end of a hall, the only thing on the wall an arched doorway, beautifully and intricately carved. Uraza pawed at the door. With no other option, as they were hopelessly lost, Abeke gently pushed open the door.

Through the door was a tower room that was filled with the most bizarre and random assortment of objects. Drums and paintings and the inexplicable smell of the outdoors among other things filled the room. In the middle was a man standing half turned away from the door.

The man seemed to be young, though his hair was gray, nearing white. He made no move when the door creaked, and he likely didn't even realize Abeke had entered the room.

The man's spirit animal must have been in passive state, though, looking at the man, there was no way that Abeke would be able to tell, seeing as his arms were a medley of tattoos. While the tattoos were similar to what Nicolai had across his body, Nicolai made it quite obvious that his animal was a feline, while the man in front of Abeke could have had anything. Concluding that the man in the tower room would be no help for her, Abeke turned around and re-entered the hall.

In what had been the only thing to go in her favor so far that day, once the door was closed behind her, Abeke found Uraza face to face with Bryer, Lucette's mountain dog. Bryer barked happily and began to retreat down the hall. Deciding that she couldn't get more lost than she already was, she followed the dog.

Finally she entered the training room. Bryer pranced over to Lucette, his tail wagging and a doggy grin on his face. Rollan was talking to the woman, Essix perched on his shoulder. Meilin and Jhi were standing a little ways away from Conor and Briggan. Tarik and Nicolai spoke in whispers next to a screen hiding something from view. Lumeo and Diata were nowhere to be seen.

"Sorry," Abeke said, gaining the attention of the entire room. "We got lost."

Tarik raised one eyebrow. "I'm sure that next time you will remember the way." He didn't outright say it, but it was clear that he was not impressed with her tardiness.

Rollan, meanwhile, shrugged and smiled at her. "The same thing happened to me the first day I had training. Bryer had to come find me, too."

Abeke gave Rollan a grateful smile as Tarik walked to the center of the room.

"Most of the time," he started, letting his voice carry through the room, "if you are attacked, you won't always have access to decent weapons." He gestured to the racks upon racks of various swords, maces, axes, and other weapons scattered around the room. "Most of the time, when you are attacked, you will be sleeping or eating. Your challenge today is to fight melee with some of these objects."

Tarik moved away from the screen and Nicolai moved it to reveal a table filled with, to put it nicely, junk. "When you hear the whistle, change items."

Before they could grab their makeshift weapons, the door to the training room opened and two Greencloaks entered. They both held their arms in such a way as to show their animal though they were in passive state. One had a lemur and the other had a fruit bat.

After nods of greeting, the four rushed to the table, eager to get their hands on whatever they could. Abeke grabbed a broom, and Conor a rusted fork. Rollan grabbed a handkerchief with a flourish and offered it to Meilin.

"Here, something to not scratch up your dainty, noble hands."

Meilin took it with a scoff and practically threw a cast iron frying pan at the boy. "Here," she mocked, "this one doesn't need any brains to use!"

Once Rollan took the pan, they were paired up. Rollan with the unnamed Greencloak with the fruit bat. Conor was with Nicolai, Meilin and Lucette, and Abeke with the Greencloak with the lemur. Tarik stood by the wall to observe.

Abeke started by throwing her broom like a spear. It bounced harmlessly off the man opposite her, Errol, he said his name was. After that false start, though, she did much better once she was given a second chance. At one point she heard iron clang and Rollan swearing happily. Eventually she was able to shove the bristles of the broom into Errol's face and win the match with Uraza's help.

Looking around she saw Rollan and Essix not really winning so much as fending off the Greencloak he was paired against. Essix kept screeching, but it sounded more like she was criticizing the boy instead of helping. Nicolai had kept Diata in passive state as he fought Conor. The older of the pair was fighting with twin daggers, and Conor's rusted fork wasn't doing much more than keeping the opposing blades from hitting him. Lucette had called Bryer back to passive state when they had all lined up, and at this point, Meilin was perched on her shoulders, using the handkerchief as a blindfold. Abeke really never wanted to be against Meilin.

Tarik blew his whistle. "New weapons! All together now!"

Abeke grabbed a heavy wooden mixing bowl and Conor a spoon, the boy must have an affinity for cutlery. Rollan and Meilin fought over a vase with flowers, ending up with Meilin holding the porcelain base and Rollan the dried flowers. They fought together fairly well, at least until Abeke got knocked down and none of the others helped her up, leaving her to almost get trampled.

Tarik looked displeased with them, but before he could say anything, footsteps sounded and Olvan entered the training room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," he said, "but this is important."

Tarik nodded, then turned to the other two Greencloaks, dismissing them with another nod.

"We have gotten confirmation that Rumfuss the Boar is in Northern Eura. Tarik you will lead the four again."

Tarik frowned. "I don't know much about the North."

Olvan nodded in agreement. "I'm aware, that's why I'm sending Finn along to be your guide."

Tarik's frown deepened and one of his eyebrows shot up. "Finn?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Olvan asked. It was rather unlike Tarik to question Olvan. "Oh, and Lucette will also be going with you. Just in case you need a little extra help with diplomacy."

Tarik shook his head.

Meilin shrugged. "More hands aren't a bad thing, are they?"

"Finn is... Well, he used to be a great warrior. Now he has seen too much battle and likely will only be useful as a scout." It was rather obvious that Tarik was trying his best not to absolutely bad-mouth the fellow Greencloak, but Abeke could tell that Tarik didn't think highly of Finn.

"He will be a good scout for you all. Here he is now."

The door opened again, and Finn entered, his footsteps softer than even Olvan's. This was the man Abeke had seen in that tower earlier. The tattoo medley and the white hair proved it. Now their lives would be in his hands.